


Don't let your pride consume you

by hanayhoee



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Iwaizumi Hajime is a Good Boyfriend, M/M, Major Character Injury, Oikawa Tooru's Knee Injury, Pro Volleyball Player Oikawa Tooru, Protective Iwaizumi Hajime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23653879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanayhoee/pseuds/hanayhoee
Summary: “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Oikawa huffed, drawing his knees up to his chest, “I’m perfectly fine.” The fluffy blankets shuffled as he turned back to the TV, cranking the volume up on whatever sci-fi show he was watching this time. He honestly didn’t care. He had watched almost all of them on Hulu and Netflix and they all started to blend together at this point.“Bullshit Tooru.”
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 7
Kudos: 212





	Don't let your pride consume you

**Author's Note:**

> A little thing I wrote bc I absolutely adore them with my whole entire heart and I wanted to write something angsty with Tooru's bad knee hehe T3T 
> 
> If u like it comments and kudos r sosososo much appreciated!! Thank u!!!

“C’mon. Spit it out.”  
“Huh?”  
Oikawa Tooru rarely let down his walls. He built them up high and strong, never one to break his facade. Iwaizumi Hajime knew this. He had dealt with his childhood friends attitude his whole life.  
“You heard me. Out with it.”  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Oikawa huffed, drawing his knees up to his chest, “I’m perfectly fine.” The fluffy blankets shuffled as he turned back to the TV, cranking the volume up on whatever sci-fi show he was watching this time. He honestly didn’t care. He had watched almost all of them on Hulu and Netflix and they all started to blend together at this point.  
“Bull _shit_ Tooru.”  
Oikawa froze. From the corner of his eye he can see Iwaizumi’s hand resting on the arm of the couch. He pretends not to notice, ignoring at the frustrated sigh his partner lets out. The soft padding of footsteps is the only warning he gets before Iwaizumi drops heavily on the cushion next to him. The taller flinches as his bad knee is jostled and Iwaizumi shoots him a cautious gaze.  
“Is your knee acti-”  
“I’m fine Iwa-chan.” Oikawa doesn’t look at him as he interjects. He picks at a loose thread on his knee brace and hopes that his boyfriend will drop it.  
“You aren’t. I can tell. I’m not gonna sit here and watch you tear yourself apart again.”  
“I don’t have anything to talk about. I’m perfectly fine.”  
“Tooru, I’ve known you for basically our whole lives. It is crystal clear to me when something is bothering you. You do-.”  
“I hate prodigies.”  
“Hm?”  
“I. **Hate**. Prodigies.” He hisses out between clenched teeth with such venom Iwaizumi almost flinches in alarm. Oikawa turns to face him slowly, his knuckles white in the blanket thrown over his lap. “I despise them, Iwa-chan. Did you know that? I really, really do. It pisses me off; just makes me want to smash them into the ground. That’s pretty cruel, but I don’t really care all that much.”  
“Is this about Tobio?” The silence that follows gives him away. Iwaizumi gives a heavy exhale through his nose and shifts to face the boy sitting next to him. “Oikawa we’ve talked about this. You can’t keep comparing yourself to him.”  
“He’s going to surpass me. I can’t let him win.”  
“He’s not going t-”  
“ _Yes he is_!” Oikawa’s harsh voice echoes through the apartment. The tinny sound of the show he was watching drones on, but all he hears is the blood rushing in his ears. “Shit, I’m sorry.” There’s a heavy silence as he waits for Iwaizumi’s response. He’s suddenly hyper aware of his existence. His breathing is way too loud. He’s pretty sure Iwaizumi can hear his heart beating. Were his palms always that sweaty?  
“It’s fine.” Iwaizumi’s sigh derails his train of thought. He studies Oikawa’s face with narrowed eyes, searching for some reason behind the outburst. Oikawa shifts uncomfortably under his boyfriend’s analyzing gaze, trying to hide the throbbing pain in his knee as he wiggles around. He knows Iwaizumi is picking him apart; stripping down his walls and worming his way in. His stare is hard and calculating, pinning Oikawa to his seat. It feels like hours before Iwaizumi breaks, exhaling hard as he opens his mouth to, as Oikawa assumes, scrutinize him. The taller beats him to it.  
“I’m scared.”  
His voice is small, just an inch over a whisper. Iwaizumi’s mouth snaps shut as his boyfriend speaks. He looks surprised, and Oikawa can’t blame him. It’s rare that the latter gives in and shares his turmoils without a heated discussion, let alone in such a calm manor.  
“I know,” It’s Oikawa’s turn to be surprised now; he wasn’t expecting such a blunt response, “I can see it.”  
“Pardon?”  
“I can see it,” He repeats as he motions to Oikawa, “Your body language gives you away.” Iwaizumi snorts at the undignified squawk his boyfriend lets out. “Before you say anything, let me explain.” Oikawa gives him an uneasy look before nodding, the silent permission urging Iwaizumi on. “First, and probably most obvious, you are way too defensive,” he holds up a hand when Oikawa tries to protest. “case and point. I also don’t think I’ve seen you this jumpy since middle school. You almost poked my eye out with a chopstick the other night when I asked why you were eating on the couch instead of the table.” Oikawa flushes at the memory of nearly spilling his takeout everywhere when the black haired man asked him from behind the couch.  
“Okay I mean, to be fair, I couldn’t see you and-”  
“I wasn’t finished.” Iwaizumi’s eyes flit over Oikawa’s lean arms, then his thin wrists, his sharp cheekbones, and the pointy collarbones peeking out of the collar of his worn t-shirt. “You haven't been eating. Which I’m not surprised at ‘cause that always happens when you’re stressed out. But it hasn’t been this terrible since third year.”  
Oikawa freezes. He tries to come up with a reply, but his mouth feels like it’s full of peanut butter. He knows it’s the truth. It’s not like he tries to starve himself, he just forgets to eat. He thinks back to his last year of highschool when it was really bad. With all the stress of finishing the year and trying to figure out which university to go to, and with the Volleyball club going to participate in the preliminaries for nationals, he had forgotten to take care of himself. At the end of volleyball practice one night, he had collapsed while running for a jump serve. He learned the hard way that forgetting to eat and sleep will break you down. After that incident, Iwaizumi watched him like a hawk. Neither of them wanted a repeat of such a scary incident.  
“-wa. Oikawa. Tooru. Oi, are you listening?” A snap in front of his face dragged him back to what Iwaizumi was saying. “Anyway, do you think I don’t notice you not coming to bed until, like, 3:30? You look exhausted,” Iwaizumi cups Oikawa’s cheek and glides his thumb over the dark shadows under his eyes, “You say you're studying but i don’t think you are.” With that, Iwaizumi stands and crosses to the other side of the room and pulls out a binder from the shelf. Oikawa watches as he flips through it a couple times.  
“What are you looking f-”  
“Here.” Iwaizumi flips the binder around to show him. The binder is filled with CDs, save for a few empty slots where the discs had been removed. It takes him a moment, but Oikawa recognizes the binder as the binder that holds the tapes of his highschool volleyball matches. Every match he ever played on the Aoba Johsai team, along with the matches of every team they had ever faced, had been kept and sorted in that binder. “You’ve been watching. Analyzing,” he points to an empty slot, “Aoba Johsai vs. Karasuno, October 26th, 2012.” Iwaizumi reads out the title of one of the slots without a CD, then flips a few pages and points to another. “Karasuno vs. Date Tech, June 4th, 2015. Babe, all the missing ones are Karasuno matches.”  
“What’s your point Iwa-chan.”  
“My point is that you’re rewatching and studying Tobio.”  
“Oh I am _not_ watching that little _bastard_ -”  
“Yes you are.” His tone leaves no room for argument. Oikawa huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “You go to practice early and leave late. You spend hours on the couch with your face so close to your laptop I’m wondering if you’re gonna end up more blind than you already are. I’m worried about you Tooru.” Iwaizumi places the binder back on the shelf and takes a few deep breaths before turning to face Oikawa again. “You can’t fall back into this habit. I’m not going to let you repeat third year.”  
“I can’t fail again.” Oikawa’s voice wavers on again and it takes everything in him not to break down.  
“You never failed in the first place!”  
“Yes I did! Do you not remember our last game? Do you not remember the little shrimp spiking the ball right towards me? Do you remember me _missing_ it? If I would have worked harder we wouldn’t have lost! If I would have been a better captain we wouldn’t have lost to him! I’m not going to sit here and watch him beat me while I sit on the bench because he’s playing in _my_ position!”  
“You can’t blame yourself for that! We trained for months and you worked your hardest! It’s not your fault Tooru, it’s not anyone's fault.”  
“It is and you know it! It’s my fault we lost that game! It’s my fault we never went to nationals! It’s my fault we couldn’t play! And now, Tobio is on my team and he’s going to take over my spot because I can’t beat him!”  
“Like hell it is! I will not let you destroy yourself over this again. You just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and one day you’re gonna reach the limit! You’re going to break and then you really won’t be able to play! Do you want that, Tooru? Do you want to sit on the sideline because you let your pride get the best of you?”  
“I don’t need you to police me Iwa-chan! I can take care of myself!”  
“You obviously can’t if this is anything to go b-”  
“YOU’RE NOT MY MOM, HAJIME!” Oikawa shoots to his feet, letting out a surprised shriek as his bad knee collapses under him. He hits the floor with a dull thud and a loud “ah!” escapes him as his knee lands on the hardwood. Iwaizumi is at his side in an instant. He takes in the sight on his boyfriend whimpering on the floor, body shaking and teeth chewing his lip as he holds back tears. He grabs the back of Oikawa’s head and pulls him to his chest, cradling him in his lap. Within seconds, the shoulder of his shirt is soaked with tears as Oikawa’s dam breaks. Sobs wrack his body as pained wails escape his throat. He clutches onto Iwaizumi like a lifeline, rocking back and forth as he digs his nails into broad shoulders. He wails when Iwaizumi squeezes him tighter, one hand running up and down his spine while the other combs through his greasy hair. It feels like a lifetime before the cries subside to mere sniffling, and he pulls back and wipes his nose on the bottom of his shirt. Iwaizumi looks at his boyfriend. Oikawa’s face is blotchy, nose red and eyes puffy from crying. He leans forward and places a soft kiss on his nose before speaking.  
“You really are an ugly crier.” Oikawa giggles and bites his lip as more tears threaten to spill over. His hands shake as they come to rest on his knee, eyes closing as he takes deep breaths.  
“It hurts Iwa-chan.”  
“Can I see it?” Oikawa hesitates before removing his hands from his leg. He gently grabs the brace and peels it back, breathing out a hiss at the pain. Iwaizumi inhales sharply. His knee is swollen and puffy. The skin around his knee cap is bruised, all different shades of black and blue and purple painting the skin, as well as a faint imprint from where the brace digs into his knee. Iwaizumi runs his fingers over the mottled skin, apologizing when Oikawa’s leg jerks in an attempt to get away.  
“How long?”  
“What?” Oikawa furrows his brow at the question.  
“How long has it been like this?” Iwaizumi eyes his knee once more before giving him a level stare. Oikawa looks away, eyes wandering around the room to find something to look at other then the man next to him. Iwaizumi gently grabs his chin and turns his head to face him. Oikawa’s eyes are glossy from pain. He studies him, watching as guilt clouds his eyes and tears welling up and threatening to spill.  
“I-,” Oikawa hiccups, ”Around two weeks.”  
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Iwaizumi lets go of his chin and rests his hand on his shoulder instead.  
“I thought I could keep going, and if I wore the brace everything would be okay but it’s not and it,” Oikawa scrunches his face up and his voice wavers, “It hurts so badly Hajime.”  
“I know, baby, I know.” Iwaizumi smooths his boyfriends hair down before placing a gentle kiss on his forehead. “C’mon, can you stand? It’s late, you should sleep.”  
“I think so.” Iwaizumi slides his arm around the taller’s back, counting to three before hauling him up. Oikawa grips his shoulder when his knee threatens to buckle again and whimpers before steadying himself. He leads him to the bedroom before easing him to sit on the bed. Iwaizumi digs around in their dresser for a pair of clean sweatpants and removes his own before slipping on the new pair. He tosses a clean sweatshirt at Oikawa and laughs at the offended squeal he hears when the sweatshirt hits him in the face. He feels something soft hit his back and turn around the find a pair of shorts on the floor and OIkawa glaring at him from the bed. There’s no heat behind it and he pouts when Iwaizumi snorts at him. He slides off his dirty shirt and walks back over to the bed, sliding under the covers and helping Oikawa ease under them himself. He pulls the brunette to his chest. Iwaizumi feels more than hears the sigh from his boyfriend, and a quick glance at him reveals that he’s already looking up at him. Oikawa presses soft kiss is pressed to his lips before nuzzling back into his chest, and within a few minutes, his breathing evens out as he falls asleep. Iwaizumi hugs him closer and closes his eyes. He feels himself drifting off, and he whispers into the dark of the room before losing consciousness.  
“I love you, Tooru.”


End file.
